Unexpected

A/N: I apologize if this chapter is a little odd, I wrote it while distracted by the massive pain a growing wisdom tooth was causing me.3





Despite their newfound camaraderie, Garrus still felt uncomfortable with the fact that Shepard seemed bent on flirting with the both of them, and although she was very discreet about it, he knew that she was doing it. Mostly because the Drell hadn’t stopped looking at her with that same tender expression he wore on Haestrom. His own jealousy seemed to be lessening, but this strange triangle bothered him – he knew from experience that it could create tension between them in the most unfortunate moments. Finally, he decided to confront her and give her an ultimatum. He waited until she appeared behind him in his work-station for one of their chats, turned around and gave a serious, though not hostile, look.



“I don’t want to be caught in a stupid love triangle, Shepard.” He announced and cringed at the same time, feeling that he could’ve at least tried to be more diplomatic about it. They weren’t exactly involved yet, they had given no promises to each other But then again, diplomacy had never been his strong suit.



She cocked an eyebrow, the newly developed implants in her eyes emitting a faint crimson glow.



“You’re talking about Thane.” She stated calmly.



He nodded, hoping he wouldn’t have to elaborate further.



“Choose one of us, Shepard. But stop toying with us.”



Her expression was thoughtful, but not angry. She rarely got angry, but when she did the whole ship found out about. Occasionally, the whole Galaxy found out about it. Garrus knew her well enough by now to be aware that she possessed a very long and slow-burning fuse with a nuke attached at the end of it. He also hoped never to become the target of that rage. It wasn’t healthy.



Shepard nodded, her fingers raking over her short dark curls.



“I’ll think about it.” Was all she responded before turning on her heel and leaving.



She’d think about it? What kind of answer was that? He fumed quietly for the next few days over that response. They hadn’t had the opportunity to speak about it further as things became quite hectic when they went inside the disabled Collector ship, only to discover that it wasn’t that disabled after all. Their discoveries there chilled him to the tips of his fringe and left him shaken and sickened by the prospect of any of their races ending up like the Collectors. Aside from that, Shepard’s decision to take both of them to watch her back, despite their unresolved issues confused him at first, but he firmly put his worried aside as they struggled to reach their shuttle on time. The three of them fought in perfect synch, as if they had done that all their lives. Despite the danger, the intense rage at the Illusive Man for leading them in a trap, Garrus felt exhilarated, bloodlust burning in his veins as he watched Collector heads burst like ripe fruits from the slugs of his or Thane’s sniper rifles, or just fly around like rag dolls when Shepard’s biotics made a short work of them.



The Husks at the very end were intensely annoying. He really hated those creatures –from the sounds they made to the putrid smell of their rotting flesh to the damned ability to move a lot faster than their decomposing muscles should’ve been able to so that they could surround you and just bludgeon you to death in the most primitive of manners. None of them, however, counted on the Scion that appeared around the corner, completely unexpected, like some nightmarish, bulbous construct of synthetics and organics. It fired its weapon and both he and Thane dove for cover. Shepard, however, was too close to the creature, much too close to have enough time to react. The glowing blue substance splattered all over her and she staggered back, dazed and confused, almost toppling over.



Thane’s battle cry echoed in his ears along with his own roar of rage, the Assassin’s biotics ripping through the monstrous creature’s shields and then both of them aimed for its head, satisfied when it screeched and fell apart.



They ran towards her, grabbing her under the arms and dragged her towards the shuttle, not pausing to consider how well she fit between them.



She regained full consciousness by the time they arrived on the Normandy and was up and heading for the Communications Room as soon as they touched down, her face pale with barely contained rage, drained of all colour except for the glowing crimson of her eyes. Neither of them said a word as the door closed behind her.



Thane and he looked at each other and then quietly retreated back to their usual spots, patiently waiting for the storm to dissipate. If Garrus hadn’t been that enraged at the Illusive Man and Cerberus in general, he would’ve almost felt sorry for their new employer. Shepard was a calculating, vindictive individual and he was sure she would make the bastard pay, sooner or later.



He expected a visit from her afterwards but his surprise EDI informed him that after her conversation with their boss Shepard had locked herself in her room and forbidden any attempts to communicate with her unless they were under attack.



He was pretty sure he knew why too – she was an individual who loved control, craved it and the Illusive Man had put her in a situation where control was wrestled out of her tiny human hands. No wonder she hid away – better to work that rage out on her own rather than take it out on a hapless crew member.



When a few hours later he heard the automatic doors open behind him, he expected that she was finally done raging and had decided to visit him, but when he turned around, he saw the Drell standing there, looking a little awkward, holding a plate of food that definitely wasn’t Drell. In fact, it looked suspiciously like a Turian meal.



“Gardner accosted me while passing by him in the corridor.” Thane explained flatly. “He said you haven’t eaten anything all day and then gave me this.” He offered the plate to Garrus. “Demanded that I hand it to you.” Thane finished.



“Oh…” was all Garrus could say at that, his gaze moving from the plate to Thane’s face, than back to the plate again. “Uh… thank you.”



“You’re welcome.” The other responded mildly. Awkward silence filled the small room. Garrus shifted his weight from one leg to the other. Come to think about it, he’d never actually had any sort of social conversation with Thane. Considering their situation, perhaps it would be prudent to try.



“Have you dined yet?” he asked, pleased that his voice sounded so steady. The Drell blinked rapidly with his nictating membranes, apparently surprised by the question, but then shook his head. “No, I haven’t yet.”



“Well, I am sure Gardner has prepared something suitable for you as well.” Garrus informed him. “We could go to the port observation deck…” he trailed off, wondering if this was a good idea at all. Once again though, Thane merely nodded.



They left Garrus’ station and the Turian watched his companion as he went to Garder and was offered a bowl of something. As he approached him he saw that the “something” appeared to be different fleshy fruits cut to small pieces and then it occurred to him that Drell, being reptiles, probably lived mostly on fruits. Whether or not they fed on bugs as well remained to be seen. He just hoped he wouldn’t see Thane munching on a Collector. The mental image both unnerved and amused him at the same time and he coughed to cover his urge to snicker.



They moved to the observation deck without speaking a word to each other and then finally settled on the floor, the large panoramic window before them giving a perfect view of the star-studded void beyond the walls of the ship.



“I am beginning to understand why Samara likes this so much.” Thane observed after a short silence and Garrus agreed.



“Yes. It is very… soothing.” He paused. “If somewhat creepy. The ship’s walls are the only thing standing between us and a rather gruesome death.” He paused at those words, suddenly wishing to kick himself. Shepard had experienced said “gruesome death” and joking about it, even as casually as it had been, was wrong.



Thane nodded without a word, quietly chewing on the on a piece of juicy, dark-red fruit. He had seen those before. Shepard showed him a vid once. Strawmerry? Strawverry?Ah, yes, strawberry.



Garrus watched the other as he popped the luscious piece of red fruit in his mouth, full lips pursing at the taste before he licked them with delight. He and Shepard – as well as all humans – had similar facial structure and similar body-structure, so very different than a Turian. Thane appeared a bit less squishy than Shepard though nowhere near as armored as Garrus himself. He had no time to wonder at his himself for the direction his thoughts had taken, because Thane suddenly spoke:



“Siha visited me shortly before we headed to the ‘derelict’ Collector ship.” He spat the word ‘derelict’ with the same venom Garrus felt when he thought about Cerberus’ deliberate omission of important intel. “She spoke of the ultimatum you gave her. Then she asked me if I thought in the same way as well.”



Well, that did make sense, although Garrus wasn’t entirely sure why the Drell would share that information with him.



“And did you?” he inquired after he swallowed the piece of food in his mouth.



The Drell shrugged elegantly.



“Siha and I have not given any oaths to each other.” Was all he said for a while. “And she left me with the impression that she had no desire to choose, at least not in that moment.”



Garrus stared at the endless sea of stars beyond the window and resisted the urge to sigh. He was beginning to suspect what Shepard wanted. He knew her quite well by now, too well perhaps. She was brave and smart and genuinely cared for her crew, cared for the well-being of the peoples in the entire galaxy to the point where she wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice her life for them. But she was also coldly calculating and above all else, she was greedy. What Shepard wanted, Shepard got and she felt very little remorse to employ any means she possessed to get what she wanted.



He had begun to trust Thane, had become willing to entrust his life in his hands and he knew that the sentiment was mutual, but could he bear to share Shepard with him in such a way?



“I was left with the impression that you wanted more from Shepard than sex.” He finally told him watching as the elegant green fingers around the bowl of fruit twitched at his observation.



“I do. But I do not have the time and the luxury, not to mention the position to demand more than she’s willing to give me.” He paused, before finally asked the question that bothered the both of them. “What exactly is it that you want from her, Garrus?”



Sex alone had definitely been the initial idea. But sex without any sort of attachment happened between people you didn’t care about. He had respected the scout he mentioned to Shepard that day when he described Turian pre-mission preparations, certainly, he had admired her, but he hadn’t cared about her. Compared to her, Shepard’s position was entirely different.



“I am not in love with her, if that’s what you’re asking.” He answered sharply, wishing he sounded less defensive than he did.



“But you care.” Was Thane’s answer and Garrus was pleased to note that there was more heat there than what the Drell must’ve wished to show as well.



“I do.” He finally admitted. Silence reigned in the Observation Deck for several long minutes afterwards before he spoke again. “So now what?”



“Now we wait and see where Siha wants to take this.” Was the self-assured answer.



“Siha” made no attempt to reject either of them in the following days and they completely abandoned the notion after the disastrous results from the Reaper IFF integration. Losing the crew – and it was his crew as well, damn it, even if they were Cerberus – just drove it home that they had very little time left. Jealousy, at this moment, seemed pointless.



Still, he felt a little surprised when he entered Shepard’s quarters in the eve of the final battle only to find the Drell assassin already there. Thane, however, didn’t appear particularly amorous at that point, only deeply distraught. The connection Garrus had already built with him was enough reason for him to feel as concerned as Shepard looked and he made no attempt to interfere as she comforted their teammate, their companion. He couldn’t help but admire her patience, her eagerness to make this work, to calm his own fears that this night would be disastrous for all three of them.



It had been awkward and tentative, with Garrus and Thane trying to touch each other as little as possible while running their hands all over her, but it had been nowhere near disastrous. In the end, it even seemed right, with the way she fit so perfectly between them.



Afterwards, after they survived and celebrated that survival, they began to settle in a routine. They would visit her, whenever she called them or whenever they desired, almost always careful not to go on the same night. There were moments when that failed and they found themselves in front of her door together, only to be invited inside without any hesitation. Time passed and they grew more and more comfortable with that arrangement, became tuned in to what the other two desired. In the end, it felt natural for Garrus to reach for Thane and touch him as he watched him gently rock in and out of their lover. He had responded to his touch with surprising eagerness, something which seemed to greatly please Shepard.



And all that led all three of them to their current predicament. Garrus stared blindly at the numbers and symbols running down his screen, indicating trajectory calculations, gun specifications, prices for new upgrades for the Normandy – Shepard preferred the ship to always be in top condition, not having even an ounce of doubt that the Reapers were coming and this was just the calm before the storm.



Garrus had work to do, important work, and yet his mind was occupied with the information Mordin had fed him earlier today. He really had had no idea about any of this. It had been his natural reaction, once they began to share Shepard’s bed he tried to establish his dominance, as it was customary in such relationships among Turian society. It had never occurred to him that he could possibly take advantage of someone in such a way and the fact that he had actually done just that nauseated him. He needed to speak to Thane about this, apologize, make it up to him somehow. Problem was, he didn’t even know how to broach this thorny subject. It was clear from the very beginning that Thane was a fiercely private person, volunteering information on a need to know basis only and apparently this particularly issue was somewhat of a taboo in Drell society. In his attempts to make amends he could just make things worse.



The door behind Garrus hissed and he turned to see if it was Shepard who was visiting, only to come face to face with Yeoman Chambers. The young woman had survived her ordeal in the Collector ship, and although her green eyes now appeared more guarded and haunted than before, she was still the well-meaning bubble of cheerfulness as before. Or at least she strived to present that image to her shipmates.



“Kelly?” he spoke, a little surprised at her presence but not unpleasantly so. “Can I do something for you?”



“Hello, Garrus.” She smiled warmly. They were all on first name basis by now, after all they went through together. “The commander asked me to pass the message that she’d spend the next 36 hours, at least, on the Citadel, attending to private matters.”



Private matters. That would probably mean trying to convince the Council to prepare for a Reaper invasion along with Ambassador Anderson. Something told him that they’d would have had more success if they had broke through Sovereign’s plating by whacking their own heads against that thing.



“She got a message from Staff Commander Alenko.” Kelly continued breezily, proving once more that the Normandy’s rumour mill was nothing without her to feed it.



Kaidan, of course. He should’ve known that sooner or later those two would just have to have a little talk. Alenko’s behaviour on Horizon had been atrocious and Garrus had had the urge to wring his pink human neck, even if at the time Shepard and he weren’t involved. A smirk broke onto his scarred face and his mandibles pulled down to reveal the sharp teeth on the sides of his jaw at the thought of Shepard sharing her current relationship status with him. That would be amusing and gratifying to observe.



Chambers was watching the expression on his face with mild curiosity.



“Something amusing, Garrus?” she asked, her own lips twitching. He was pretty sure that she knew exactly why he was smirking that way, being well aware of the arrangement between the three of them. In fact, he was sure that the entire ship knew, though all tried to be discrete about it. “Thane smiled in the same way when I told him the same thing.” She continued.



Well, of course he did. For all the things Mordin had said about Thane, the man possessed a dry and often somewhat sadistic sense of humour and loved unleashing it on unsuspecting victims. He didn’t know Alenko, but perceptive and emphatic as he was, he had figured out on his own how deeply the human had hurt their lover.



Kelly left shortly afterwards and once again left him alone with his thoughts, looking quite pleased with herself.



It took him almost half a day afterwards to make up his mind about his next course of action but when he finally did, he left his station without hesitation and headed to Life Support.